The game was in its 69th minute when the electronic board signalled the end of Moussa Sissoko’s involvement. Finally, Newcastle United fans had something to cheer.
It was 5 March and, in the final, agonising, act of Steve McClaren’s managerial tenure, the Championship-bound side were suffering a soul-crushing 3-1 defeat at home against Bournemouth.
Utterly woeful, Sissoko – awarded two out of 10 by local papers – looked incapable of finding a team-mate with the simplest pass. The clamour to drop the France midfielder nursing an increasingly suspect first touch had been mounting for months but McClaren, wary of upsetting his francophone contingent, resisted.
When he finally hooked the 6ft 2in former Toulouse midfielder the loudly ironic cheers and “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” jibes filling the Tyneside air were underscored by sadness. Newcastle were plunging out of the Premier League, with many viewing Sissoko as bearing greater responsibility than McClaren or even Mike Ashley, the owner.
Fast-forward four months and the world has turned upside down. On Wednesday in Marseille Sissoko cut an imperious figure as his formidable amalgam of pace, power and passing helped France overcome Germany in their Euro 2016 semi-final.
After finally securing a place in Didier Deschamps’ starting XI during the quarter-final deconstruction of Iceland, the midfielder looks more than capable of making Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo cry in Sunday’s denouement. A month short of his 27th birthday, Sissoko is admired by, among others, Liverpool, Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus. Only weeks ago it seemed almost impossible to envisage any of them wanting him but the Parisian’s life was transformed when Rafael Benítez succeeded McClaren and, in the process of very nearly staving off relegation, breathed new life into his game.
Benítez – who maintains a player contracted until 2019 will captain Newcastle in the Championship next season – succeeded in rediscovering the Sissoko who looked a potential world-beater on arriving in the north-east in January 2013. Dominating games in a manner reminiscent of a younger Yaya Touré, a dynamo described by Alan Pardew, his manager at the time, as “a real football force” ran opponents into the ground that spring.
Things unravelled the following January when Yohan Cabaye departed for Paris Saint-Germain and Sissoko became increasingly inconsistent. Previously difficult to dispossess he began conceding possession ever more cheaply. Rather than accelerating from box to box, creating, and sometimes scoring, key goals he drifted on to the margins.
On good days – and there were a few – Sissoko’s intercepting,marauding, counterattacking presence still proved pivotal and perhaps explains how he retained his international squad place. Generally, though, a player capable of exerting considerable off-pitch influence over a coterie of French-speaking team-mates rarely controlled matters on it. Comments in the French press suggesting he felt entitled to Champions League football only added to his popular characterisation as an overhyped mercenary.
McClaren wondered if Sissoko was deployed in the wrong position before opting to stick with Pardew’s blueprint and keep him wide (largely on the right) rather than the more central, ideally No10 role, Sissoko craved. Eventually, and possibly mistakenly, the former England coach concluded the player lacked the tactical discipline to be trusted as a team’s heartbeat.
Buying into McClaren’s theme, even some dedicated “Rafa-ologists” expected Benítez swiftly to jettison Sissoko. Instead the new manager dropped the £12m Jonjo Shelvey, while shifting the Frenchman to No10 and making him captain.
“Moussa helps me a lot, the French players follow him,” said the Spaniard, who was repaid by a renascent attacking midfield leader as Newcastle ended last season on a five-game unbeaten run.
Along the way the pair formed a strong bond, with the former echoing Deschamps in praising his “intelligence” and Sissoko’s four-year-old son even being allowed to steal the manager’s dugout seat on occasion.
Since then Deschamps’ longstanding faith has been similarly rewarded by his protege’s impressive interpretation of a right-sided role which maximises Paul Pogba’s talents while potentially disrupting Benítez’s plans. “I’m in contact with Moussa,” said Benítez, defiantly. “Hopefully he’ll help France win and then help Newcastle. We don’t have to sell anyone we don’t want to sell. If someone makes a big offer we’ll analyse it but, for now, we’ll say no to everyone.”
Although a £20m-plus bid could well alter things – and accepting such cash in exchange for a potentially discontented player might make sense – there is a feeling that Sissoko remains at the heart of Benítez’s vision for a club he ultimately envisages leading back into Europe. “Players like Moussa need to take responsibility [for relegation],” he said. “If they do well and get us back to the Premier League everyone will be happy.”
Removing Sissoko from Championship combat will not be cheap.
